​There is most definitely a good story in here somewhere but it is very poorly told. If this had been any other author I would have stopped reading ages ago but I kept on giving it a chance.

The novel started off as being more British than the British. Given it was set in London there was definitely a lot of effort put into making it sound tres Anglo-Saxon. I don't think people realize that the barriers that they believe exist between Americans and Brits are very grey. Nowadays language is becoming more international and frankly there were a few words at the start that I don't think even English coppers use anymore.

Next qualm: the two story lines - the one about the murdering wife of a "kiddie fiddler" and the other about the kidnapping had no link whatsoever and I failed to understand why they were in the same novel except as cushioning to make the story longer.

The main story line of the kidnap seemed miles too far-fetched for me. It was bizarre. Especially the linkage to Al Qaeda and Israel; the impressionable American girl whose mind is manipulated to make her believe she was sexually abused as a child... There is far too much in this and it failed to grab me like the first James Patterson I read.